more news today is once again flared up. these are the images real world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for a shelter all day. oh i'm sorry marvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture because brothers have their hands in just about everything even with a pedia i'll explain what they're up to and why because of their efforts you need to be careful about believing anything you read on the internet plus how can this nation the richest in the world not provide clean drinking water consumer advocate and author erin brockovich joins me for this discussion but first a dramatic turn of events in wisconsin. this is

a violation of law this is not just the legal. notice the chairman. it was gaza state senate republicans used what they claim is a loophole in the law to officially cut from state employees nearly all collective bargaining rights the night how this latest move is part of a larger plan to destroy our democracy. you need to know this late last night governor scott walker and republicans in wisconsin proved to the world what we all suspected their union stripping agenda had absolutely nothing to do with the budget it was gutsy we democrats still a wall in public opinion turning against him walker used the nuclear option

wisconsin senate republicans convened a special session last night and stripped the budget bill of all the stuff related to an actual budget so they get to ram it through without the necessary quorum of democrats resulting bill was pretty much nothing more than a way to screw over public unions. including stripping most of their collective bargaining rights away and to sell off public utilities to the rich funders of the republicans republicans passed the bill with no democrats present as one of the filibustering democratic senators chris larsen said about the move last night it obviously wasn't about any kind of financing it was an attack on working families and senate minority leader mark miller said in thirty minutes eighteen state senators undid fifty years of civil rights in wisconsin. and needless to say governor walker reignited the labor protests in madison last night and today we'll take a look at some of these things. to

top it all off the republicans did last night was probably illegal they may have violated the state's open meeting laws which require the legislature to give a twenty four hour notice before any new sessions or convene the democratic minority leader in the state assembly house status the white house and peter parker tried to make this point known last night was largely ignored by republican senate majority leader scott fitzgerald take a look. chairman this is a violation of law this is not just. you know this is the chairman this is incredible the state assembly did their part today and wrapped up passing this illegal bill all massive protests were going on both inside the capitol rotunda and outside the building the building that now goes to governor walker for

signature there will be more protests over the weekend a possible nationwide walk out of high school students at two pm friday afternoon and possibly even a labor strike but here's the thing this isn't just about wisconsin or the war against unions this isn't just about the illegal tactics used by republicans over the labor strikes or the fillip fourteen filibustering democrats this is a war against democracy itself a war against the institutions in our nation to give you and i the right to elect our leaders and determine our own future this is about republicans who are lapdogs to giant corporations and billionaires crushing political rivals and to be as other corporate overlords like the koch brothers in an effort to defeat president obama in two thousand and twelve and bring about one party rule in america. but don't take my word for it take wisconsin republican scott fitzgerald's word for it he's the guy who undermine democracy and convened an illegal session last night to pass

the anti-union bill and he had this to say yesterday just hours before the vote. they flipped the state senate which is obviously obviously the goal with eight recalls going on right now they can take control of the labor unions if we win this battle and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions certainly what you're going to find is president obama is going to have a much difficult a much more difficult time getting elected in winning the state of wisconsin well there it is right there you guys admitting this is all about disabling the democratic party crippling president obama's chances of winning next year it's not just about destroying the unions it's about destroying our two party system and if they get away with it communities that you and i live in all across america will be transformed dramatically this is our little city over here democracy bill usa in a few minutes i'm going to show you what will happen in the city and in your city if republicans like scott walker are successful but first for more on the latest of

what's going on in wisconsin i'm joined from wisconsin by the reverend jesse jackson reverend jackson welcome to our program. we're very very we're barker's. where are. a lot of people you know but they're going to fight over reverend jackson you've seen a lot of protests in your day from anti-war to civil rights but does this movement have in common with past movements. well in the south to sweep after blood or some themselves the scariest on the floor the six years ago be viewed through and we turn our pain tower and let the sun and the mars august we got a boy. now that would be a vehicle let. people give him a liar apl fire of passion in great numbers islamists about supreme court about the county exhibit that's one thing the second thing you want is in

alabama was. right to work states rights and power recruit collective bargaining well walker the state's rights and our workers and their collective maga so from the wallace to walk we have been here undemanding a basic sense of social justice talk just a facial the workers must fight back and i think with a bigger plan than just the state this is goes beyond that they have a new deal. and just think great society for the moment therapy they have a deal they have a deal for the american worker but we see now is the very wealthy the world the people are increasingly close to people like increasing the little class shrink and maybe the bigger and bigger deal for the american worker agreed during the vietnam and civil rights era as on the other side there were big defense contractors and

businesses the benefited from the war and also big companies that benefited from cheap exploitable african-american labor who are the puppet masters behind this generation of republican politicians will images. from is true jim follows since martin lemon. good thing stumps me the trillion dollar the war machine in afghan. iraq is a one point two trillion with here in afghanistan to begin follows. we pay a lot of bankers not linked to lehman may not the reinvestment so also pose on the rise we see the moon with the last review of this juice tax. so the wealth of america can be simple a tool of one hundred twenty billion dollars accomplish on all of the state budget deficits comparing that deal straight to the plough in two states.

how can we best take these people on average x. . well let's see that the banks must be made accountable. to your lab must be some way to get them to reimburse him for the urban america practice sexually. in the wallace redirect the budget from the will because they were against the war in keep expanding the premise. that the big deal is there people who lost their spirits in november leave could be taken over him so we need to be needed to there with enthusiasm come april so it's in the state we have taken a man look at me and i'll lend you a little in in the world they can live the richest employ on the same day and we have big master registration build a campaign in the next one a slab we can make it's pavement it was caught so there will be

a group around the country as a stand alone inspection with the. i and then it seems like it might actually even happen reverend jesse jackson thanks so much for being with us today thank you very much. now i want to go to somebody else with boots on the ground in madison lisa graves is the executive director at the center for media and democracy and formerly the deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal policy of the u.s. justice department of justice she joins me now lisa welcome to the program thanks tom so what's the latest on the ground there in madison. well the vote that happened this afternoon the assembly was a vote that was nearly shouted down i shouts of shame people throughout the capitol outside the capitol were shouting shame on those members and one of the surprising things that happened in that vote was it was an absolutely partisan right wing vote to strip unions of their rights and there were

a couple of republicans that joined all of the democrats in voting against this deplorable and really quite frankly immoral bill so the crowd was stunned there'd been arrests over the last twenty four hours at the behest of walker and. others who are the leaders of the senate and the house as you pointed out scott fitzgerald talked about how you know they were they were intent on destroying the labor rights of people in this state in order to make partisan political gains in the twenty twelve presidential elections and so i think the scales have fallen off the eyes of many people but crowds are every age across the spectrum there from all classes in this in this state and i think there's going to be a huge huge backlash for these guys lisa speaking of backlash how goes the recall. it's gaining steam i think that you know you saw the maneuvers last night where the republican leadership couldn't even honor basic open records basic sunshine in

government law by having a properly noticed vote they want to do this in the dark of night it's a shameful act they can't seem to follow the law they basically act by fiacha you know it's not a democracy here this is what corruption looks like and i think that the color prints are gaining tremendous steam the numbers that we're carrying are really large the numbers on the other side are look pretty anemic in terms of the effort to recall democratic senators who dared to stand up to this the asco and so i think that some of the republicans are concerned about their political future and by the looks of the numbers they really should be. doing very quickly what's the status of the state capitals have been locked down are they keeping people out or have the police become who have been fairly friendly to the protesters up to this point become adversarial. well the capital was closing down we got word about fifteen minutes ago it was going to close for the business day but there were there are many people outside the capital people are preparing for

a lockout tomorrow people are preparing for the next stage and an enormous protest on saturday a lot of the police who've been there have have continued to be supportive but some of them you know are clearly under orders to guard for example the rappel that scott walker and his cronies have been entering through by the m. and i bank building. the cards that some of the some of the new police are more armed than we've ever seen before. but the people are standing strong and i think that this this is one battle that people are ready for the long long battle in this war very good thank you very much for being with us i'm sure sure we're covering it all n.p.r. watch dot org great thank you and here watch that or check it out there being conflicting reports about what the filibustering democratic senators who have been across state lines for weeks now will actually do in the aftermath of governor walker's and the republicans illegal tactics whether they come home in the next few

days or what options are left for them to stand up for the workings constituents and strike down this bill that not only strips workers their basic rights but also undermines our democracy for more of this i'm joined by one of those democratic senators chris larsen chris welcome to the program. thank you for having me great to have you with us did the republicans in wisconsin just undo fifty years of labor rights as one of your colleagues. exactly and unfortunately did it in a very short time frame this is something where they have the opportunity to hear the people the people tried to be trying to speak out and unfortunately they decided they were just going to shut them out time and time again and what we saw yesterday was a move where in just a couple of hours just two hours they gave notice before the public for the public to actually reacted what happened was they just jam this bill through they took all the other stuff off the table and it was just the collective bargaining rights the workers' rights and they decided to attack. it and we've been leaving everything

else aside it was a also what throw and selling off public it's well it is. i'm not sure that they did i think it was just the nonphysical items that were in it because if there was anything else besides that it would not be constitutional they have to have twenty members for a poor room in order to do anything that has a political impact the republicans claim a business something that doesn't have a direct fiscal impact which it does so they think they just they just as the part about so given even given how scott walker was bragging to the guy that he thought was david koch about how he was going to lure you guys back see just you know pull switcheroo and pass the bill i'm assuming the eve guys are assuming that he's still got that up his sleeve and he's planning on it given that i mean and feel free to correct me if i'm wrong are you guys planning on returning it was constant any day . we like we will soon at this point we're focusing on the package this bill passed and what's in it what it contains we look we left three weeks ago with the

intention of bringing attention to this trojan horse and all the provisions that were in it bringing attention to the people of wisconsin of what this bill we do to workers' rights to no bid contracts for public utilities and politicizing thirty seven positions as well as the attacks that medically medicare senior care and two hundred others are changes and trying to jam through in about seventy two hours we try to bring attention to that we were successful so we degree we never thought possible you know everyone in wisconsin now knows what this bill is an attack on workers' rights if furthermore the people in the country now know it's clear division between white democrat is and what a republican is and where they stand when push comes to shove you know democrats were willing to stay out of the state for three weeks away from our family our friends our homes our loved ones are just stand up for workers' rights and put everything on the line for that but at the same time republicans used every trick

in the book to try and lure us back in try to shut out the public opinion shutting down the public hearing shutting off the legislative process because they heard enough from you all shutting down the public debate in the assembly in sam in the bill through even though they had enough votes they jammed it through in the middle of the night and they shut down the capitol not everybody out and then they took over our offices and then this with a.t.m. get through yesterday with just two hours notice for the public things read people out of the assembly today driving g.m. this thing senator larceny do you have any recourse legally to overturn what rocker the republicans did last night well representative barca is for to watch to try and stop it under all the meetings well under state law you have to have twenty four hours notice if you're going to break have an open meeting they did not do that they had two hours notice so that's going. be moving forward and so we'll be watching with great interest what happens with that lawsuit but the big thing to remember is what happens next with all these people there's going to be

a big rally on saturday and i think after that people are going to turn in their protest signs from clipboards as people move to the street and get involved in democracy in these recall efforts against republicans and get involved in the future in voting need getting their friends to vote and perhaps running for office themselves this is buyer's remorse on steroids senator thanks so much for being with us thank you so much remember this is not just about the unions and in just a minute i'll show you how this will affect all of us all across the nation. that brings us to our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think what is governor walker and the republicans union's turpin agenda all about here are your choices a one party rule be the end of democracy see president obama not being reelected or d. all of the above so far the results are around eighty five percent d.

all of the above you still have time to vote it's our. think the poll will be open until tomorrow morning. up next your hometown part of the fabric that makes america but what will happen to it republicans get their way next i'll demonstrate using this little town what could happen. for flimsy low and back he has all the preaching about using women and nothing people are suggesting she's longer no she says she's a stock. welcome

to democracy ville usa it could be any town you and i live anywhere in the nation this over here is the public sector our homes are public parks are public schools are fire stations police stations public utilities septic systems city all our government is part of the commons part of our public areas and this is the private sector of the businesses big businesses medium size businesses small businesses. i

want to talk about what how these relate and what's really going on in wisconsin as part of this larger frame let's start at the beginning with the founding of the country when the founders and the framers wrote the constitution they laid out the preamble the constitution a very simple statement of why they were creating this nation and they said we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union number one coming together right it's all of us to establish justice some sort of a system where everybody is equal under the law to insure domestic tranquility to me this was the happiness that jefferson talked about in the declaration of independence to provide for the common defense and notice common defense not capitalized back in those days they capitalized the most important things provide for the common defense course we had to do that promote the general welfare and welfare is capitalized and secure the blessings of liberty to our pos to ourselves

and our posterity to our children our grandchildren our great can do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america now one of the guys who helped write the constitution and who actually along with ben franklin edited the end john j. edited the first draft of the declaration of independence the thomas jefferson wrote was our second president john adams in seven hundred seventy six as we were going to war this was what john adams said about the purpose of government why do we have to he said government is instituted for the common good for the protection safety prosperity and happiness of the people and not for profit honor or private interest of any one man family or class of men so it's pretty clear why we have government what it's all about at least in the minds of the founders. it wasn't about making the rich richer or that it was about providing for

the general welfare promoting domestic tranquility for providing for the common defense basically making a nation that works all these things together that work. stablish mean the establishing mission station statements of our nation so what do we have here first of all this the public areas most of this is what we call the commons the commons is the stuff that we all we all own in common we have the police department the fire department the public so the public schools in our commons we have you know the the and the parking meters the bike paths the public parks there's a public park over here the government city hall all of these things the septic systems the and the things that you can't see here that we couldn't quite illustrate with these blocks but are very much a part of the commons the air we breathe the water we drink but whether or not our food is clean whether or not our drugs are safe those kinds of things this this is

all the stuff that basically government was established to do on a not for profit basis nobody was to make any money off this because this is about us taking care of us. pretty straightforward stuff then of course we have the private sector the private sector was established you know the constitution provides for every state actually more provides for the word corporation doesn't appear in the constitution but people were allowed to engage in commerce as long as it was proved it wasn't in in direct it didn't represent a direct danger to the commons. and what has happened over time is the the big businesses used to be by the way we had these laws like the sherman antitrust act in one thousand nine hundred one there were other state laws that went back before that all the way to the fun in this country that said that you know a business can basically only do one thing that it can only last thirty forty years in every state union in forty years is the maximum some number twenty or thirty

years in fact up until you see ninety's that businesses have to serve the public good you know it just all is basic stuff so what happens is these big companies now in the absence of these regulations since ronald reagan became president and stopped in one thousand need to stop enforcing the sherman antitrust act the big companies reached out and just started eating in the medium sized companies and the smaller companies and eight of the town to the point where you know before reagan became president if you went into any mall in america any little shopping center every store would be locally owned now you could drop out of a plant sixty thousand feet land in any city in america not have any idea where you are look around and still not have any idea where you are because every ball is the same every store is the same they're all these national chains so what has happened is this has all come under the power of the giant corporations we have an

oligopoly basically in our media in our food supply in our drug supply in pretty much any sector in manufacturing in the whole in defense you have a small handful of large corporations that the but then that wasn't enough these large corporations and many of the very very wealthy people who made their money from them through them. or inherited their money from them through them starting to reach out for the commons they started looking over there going you know there's a lot of money flowing through here both between thirty and forty percent i think right now it's forty one percent of the entire g.d.p. of the united states is happening over here and you know it's like people providing for their own police are part of their own fire department their public schools their public parks the bike the the septic systems the water systems the power systems forty percent of g.d.p.

is a heck of a lot. so these companies started saying you know let's reach out and grab some of these let's let's let's nail down the natural monopolies first things like you know cable systems into people's homes how many cables can you have in your house basically one ok so that's it in france by the way they get a law that says of the wire coming in your house is irrelevant a cable company can provide cable to you it's a cable is about thirty bucks a month in france how much do you pay and by the way that includes all those channels plus telephone plus all kinds of calls that ok parking meter chicago privatized their parking meters bypass public parks they're reaching out and basically buying these things off the the public areas the public lands then they said ok let's there privatizing the public schools and so they started these p.r. campaigns about how charter schools were better and public schools are failing at the same time that they were buying politicians and lobbying really hard to to basically starve public schools so that they could turn this into

a profit center there or is actually towns that have privatized their fire departments there are companies that are offering this we have huge a huge private security industry that is now supplying our police departments with equipment and training and in many cases like in new orleans after hurricane katrina his who showed up to police the city and iraq were there looking at the water at the septic the power systems this is what scott walker wants to so off in wisconsin privatized all these things and then ultimately this is the big enchilada this is the one that they've been working on for quite a while and they're they're really as you can see from what's going on in wisconsin they're pretty much there by city hall now there's two ways this happens one you've got in wisconsin for example you know republicans and all over the country republicans obviously doing but these guys want them to do but in michigan governor snyder is even saying that if city hall is having

a hard time raising money too. or they might think about doing something like raising taxes oh my god we can't have that and they can simply he can simply as the governor simply dissolve city hall dissolve the town and replace it with our burdon blackwater blackwater after all or prince came out of michigan i mean could be with with a manager that could be from a for profit corporation so all of this stuff ends up all of becomes ends up being the property of and controlled by big business including democracy which just feels so. still to come in the big picture two very wealthy brothers have been arrested in london in connection with the collapse of an icelandic bank and we're going to do the same thing here at stores next. for some of the low and.